Health

The Year of the Co-op, 2012, was noteworthy here in Ithaca especially because of the flourishing life of cooperatives in our community. We've got the usual co-op suspects — food stores, housing, bookstores. But 2012 was also a remarkable year for a different co-op: People's Organization of Community Acupuncture (POCA), based in Portland, Oregon. A survey of POCA member clinics showed that community acupuncture clinics provided 753,428 treatments in 2012. Considering that, in 2007, 3.1 million people received acupuncture, the fact that over three-quarter of a million treatments in 2012 were performed in community acupuncture clinics alone shows the power of this movement.

Community acupuncture differs from a typical acupuncture experience in certain ways, but is similar in most respects. In any setting, acupuncture is performed on points located along the fourteen meridians from head to toe; the needles are retained for 30-60 minutes, during which a person rests and maybe even dozes off; and then the needles are removed.

GreenStar is a natural foods co-op. We have a commitment to health. We try to supply healthy foods in as natural a state as possible. But even with the best of self-care, sometimes our members need medical care.

In America, health care isn't free. As a result, not all of us can afford it. Ithaca Health Alliance fills the gap in some instances, but not in every instance, and not outside of our community. Our president has championed and won the fight to ensure that all Americans can get the care they need, but he has been having a bad month or two. Most of it has been about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare.

President Obama deserved the heat: first the website didn't work and then some of the people who liked their insurance were forced to give it up, even though he promised they wouldn't be. If that weren't enough, the enrollment numbers are in, and they are so low that, well, they stink. But if you are like many people, you may not know what the whole thing is all about. And starting next month, all Americans are going to have to comply. So let's go over the main parts of it: we'll keep it really simple.

GreenStar recently installed 18 solar panels on the roof of the receiving area on the southern side of the store, and as of mid-September, they’re providing clean, renewable power to the store. The 4.05 kW grid-tied system, installed by Ithaca’s Renovus Energy, is made up of 18 SunPower 225 Watt panels. The system is designed to generate an average of 11.1 kWh per day, or 4,038 kWh per year. Of course, energy production is both weather- and seasonally-dependent. General Manager Bini Reilly estimates that the system should provi...